Essentially, that's the highest intensity of interest expressed in a survey the city did of what kind of use residents and others want for 19 acres on Whiting Farms Road previously considered controversially by Walmart and Lowe's improvement.

Open space-recreation scored the highest intensity of responses in the survey followed by mixed-retail use, retail plaza, office space,auto dealer, a tie between industrial and single-unit residential and multi-unit residential, according to the results discussed at Tuesday's (July 22) meeting of the City Council Ordinance Committee at City Hall.

The department did the survey at the request of officials. That's in relation to residents who have organized under the name Holyoke First who have filed a request to change the property's zone.

Petitioners want to change the property's zone to industrial park from the current general business. They hope that would block large retail projects with loads of traffic.

The Ordinance Committee voted to table consideration of the zone-change petition and the survey results, and will resume dealing with them Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The Ordinance Committee began considering the request for the zone change in November.

Holyoke Gas and Electric Department (HGE), which owns the property, opposes the zone change because officials say that would limit its marketability and short-change department ratepayers.

While open space-recreation might be a desired use for the property, it is hard to imagine officials who want to change the vacant site into a taxpaying entity agreeing to that.

Terri Laramee, who lives on Gordon Drive and is the spokeswoman of Holyoke First, thanked Marrero for doing the survey. The group still would like the property to get as unobtrusive a use as possible, which is why members so vocally opposed the traffic a so-called "big-box" retailer like Walmart would draw, she said.

"Our biggest thing is the neighborhood being forgotten. That has always been our first issue," Laramee said.

She said after the meeting the group still supports a plan it had proposed to the city to establish at the Whiting Farms Road site a Smart Growth Zoning Overlay District. That's a type of zoning that would allow for a mix of residential and commercial uses. Among restrictions would be a maximum size of 35,000 square feet permitted for a single non-residential building, a clear reference to the opposition to big-box stores.

The survey was done with respondents asked to rate eight options of uses for the site -- retail, office space, etc. -- on a one to five scale, with five signaling the most desired and one the least, Marrero said.

The detailed listing of tables and columns of the survey show it was packed with information that Marrero said his staff still is analyzing and will return with to the Ordinance Committee.

"We haven't reached any conclusions," Marrero said.

The survey results are among numerous factors officials will consider in whether to grant or deny the zone change, a decision that is the responsibility of the full City Council, which will consider a recommendation from the Ordinance Committee.